Vorobyev dominates under 23 world TT championship

Three and a half months before he will turn pro with the Katusha team, Russian rider Anton Vorobyev posted a dominant under 23 time trial victory at cycling’s road world championships.

While the gaps were tight in today’s earlier junior road race, the 21 year old was far ahead of his competitors this afternoon, clocking a time of 44 minutes and 9 seconds over the 36.6 kilometre distance. He put 44.39 seconds into the tipped Australian Rohan Dennis and 51.12 seconds into Damien Howson (Australia).

Olympic Omnium champion Lasse Norman Hansen (Denmark) was the only other rider within a minute of the winner, while one of the big pre-race favourites Rasmus Christian Quaade (Denmark) had to be content with fifth.

"I was confident of my ability and hoped to win,” the winner said afterwards. “I studied the course twice before the race and rode at my maximum from the start.”

Vorobyev was quickly up to speed in the test, covering the opening 13.1 kilometres in 15 minutes 41.55 seconds and clocking the quickest provisional time there ahead of Dennis and Hansen. He was four seconds and thirteen seconds faster over the other two, and extended his advantage to 25 seconds and 35 seconds respectively by the second check, at km 26.5.

He showed no signs of slowing down between there and the finish, riding strongly up the Cauberg to seal his gold medal.

Seventh in the stage 2b time trial at the GiroBio/Baby Giro in June, he was one place out of the medals in the European time trial championships in August.

Since then he has been riding as a stagiaire with Katusha and has made a good impression; he was fifth in the stage five TT in the Tour of Denmark and, earlier this month, third in the Memorial Davide Fardelli.

Katusha team manager Hans-Michael Holczer was stunned by the winning margin today. “I expected Anton to be really good, that he could compete for the gold. But this…” he said, his voice trailing off in appreciation.

“He’s good in time trials, but also a strong road racer. A quiet guy that has a Tony Martin-like style. He’s got a keen eye in the race. We’ll take it real easy on him, bring him on slowly. He’s an exceptional talent, that’s for sure.”

The world road race championship continues tomorrow with the time trials for elite and junior women.